Has anyone ever heard such an idea? Since Yellowstone Supervolcano may destroy the USA and do great harm to the entire Earth, why not coax it to "let off steam" so it cannot erupt massively? In the process we would need to make Yellowstone erupt, but control the eruption so just enough ash goes into the stratosphere and blocks enough sunlight to halt global warming. Also use the heat to generate power. This would require tunneling into Yellowstone and creating a channel for it to erupt just enough to prevent a super eruption. Is this possible? If so, it would save the Earth from destruction, stop global warming, and even might serve as an energy source.

Edited May 16, 201213 yr by Airbrush

That sounds pretty good in theory, but I'm not sure if thats how it works.

There are two practical problems here:

 

1) tunneling into Yellowstone

2) creating a channel for it to erupt just enough to prevent a super eruption

 

To paraphrase the 70s series, The Six Million Dollar Man, We do not have the technology.

The idea is like trying to put a pin into a balloon to let just a bit of the air out.

I seem to remember from some news in the past that some scientist floated this idea and he was labeled 'nuts'. A small percentage of error and we'd all be extinct.

The idea is like trying to put a pin into a balloon to let just a bit of the air out.

 

I like your post. It is concise, poetically stated, and true, for now.

 

In hundreds or thousands of years from now we may learn enough about Yellowstone to know what we could do to ONLY let out some pressure using advanced technology, without "popping the balloon". There would be some kind of robotic tunneling machines. Well before breaking through to the magma, they set a small nuke, or conventional explosives, to do the final excavating after the tunnelers are removed. Theoretically this planned eruption would reduce the pressure so that it is no longer a threat. Maybe it could just keep erupting, in a minor way, like Kilauea on the big island of Hawaii.

 

Does anyone know why science programs always say Yellowstone erupts on the average of once every 600,000 years when my calculation is 730,000 years?

 

"The three super eruptions occurred 2.1 million, 1.3 million, and 640,000 years ago, forming the Island Park Caldera, the Henry's Fork Caldera, and Yellowstone calderas, respectively.[8] The Island Park Caldera supereruption (2.1 million years ago), which produced the Huckleberry Ridge Tuff, was the largest and produced 2,500 times as much ash as the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption. The next biggest supereruption formed the Yellowstone Caldera (640,000 years ago) and produced the Lava Creek Tuff. The Henry's Fork Caldera (1.2 million years ago) produced the smaller Mesa Falls Tuff but is the only caldera from the Snake River Plain-Yellowstone (SRP-Y) hotspot that is plainly visible today.[9]"

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellowstone_Caldera

Edited May 23, 201213 yr by Airbrush

I saw the episode about Yellowstone on "How the Earth Was Made" and I noticed they showed there were about 10 supereruptions of Yellowstone before the last supereruption of 640,000 years ago. But they didn't say when they happened. Wikipedia only mentions the last 3 supereruptions. So I think either Wiki or "How the Earth Was Made" is wrong.